Working on a Saturday - 21 November 2009

I think having school on a Saturday affected my 5th graders the most. They sorely missed sleeping in and watching cartoons, and their English is good enough to express this to me. On Monday, 23 November, I noticed that a lot of students were not well behaved. My 5th graders were still excellent, but complained that they were tired and grouchy due to having had such a short weekend.

I had brought the Scooby Doo DVD that I had taken from the English-language library, to watch during the last period for English. I lent it to another teacher, and since it worked in her computer, I figured that it would in mine. I didn't get it back until 7th period started, and then I discovered that not only did it not work in my computer, but the IT guy had already gone home!

Luckily, my assistant was on my side--the kids needed to watch a video, not do more work. She helped me figure out a plan--the room across the hall was empty. She quickly went in and set up the video--it worked! So we went in there to watch.

Scooby Doo has an amazing amount of complicated vocabulary, which I had never noticed before. Why can't they use simple language? (Of course, I don't mind that when Sophia's watching, I want her vocabulary to improve! But it drastically cut down on my students' comprehension and enjoyment--they got a bit restless.) However, our recent story was about the characters hearing a loud noise and thinking it might be a monster, so they run and hide. Our vocabulary words for the unit included "monster," "I'm scared," "run" and "hide." Working on varying answers to the question, "How are you?" we had been working on "I'm hungry" as well as "I'm scared" (and others). So Scooby Doo was good for this vocabulary! They run and hide a lot, and Scooby and Shaggy are always hungry!

The parents came early and we got to go home earlier than usual. Valerie did not show up. She had said that she would, if they would let her only come for the classes she had that day, but they never said anything. In the end, they let us all go once our last class was over. So another example of faulty communication and expectations. The whole fight over her working Saturday could have been diffused if there had just been communication! (Or, at least, part of it.)